A Brand New Show…Mostly

Well, I’ve officially done it. I now have a new show and yes, I call it “A Brand New Show…Mostly.” Here’s the weird thing. This was the most organic change I’ve ever had happen. In the past, I’ve gone as far as to fly a consultant out for a few days to help me write a show. Then, months were spent perfecting, rehearsing and getting it front of audiences. THIS new show basically happened by me saying, “Let me replace these bits in my current show.” And don’t ask me how, but I wrote the majority of this thing in about one week and had it in front of a test audience within two weeks. I left the venue confused because it almost seemed to be more well received than the show I’ve been doing for last five years.

So…what changed?

Bryan Saint announces A Brand New Show...Mostly!The Beginning

I have been doing the same opener since…**cough**…the second year of my career. That routine is tight as the skin on Ricky Ricardo’s conga drum and it’s exactly 5 minutes to the second. You could wake me out of my REM cycle, hand me a rope and I would do that routine spot on 5 minutes. Well…that bit is officially out of the show. It has been replaced with a shortened version of what I just did on Fool Us with the cube and folder. So far, so surprised. Audiences love it, and I’m really loving starting the show different.

The Middle

This is the part between the beginning and end. There are actually two directions the middle can go, depending on the venue and the audience. There are a couple of crowd favorites in here, including a brand new take on a routine that’s been out of the show for more than five years. In the middle of the show, I’m actually faced with a challenge that I’ll talk more about shortly.

The End

Ok, THIS is the one I didn’t see coming. Now, I absolutely refuse to go into specifics. BUT, there’s an ending to the show that was initially written into the middle. I moved it to the end just to see how audiences responded. I’ve never seen anything like it. I have yet to do a show where this hasn’t gotten an instant standing ovation. That includes a house party with 20 people and even caused a dozen or so people at a corporate event in December to jump up and down on their chairs (yes, that actually happened).

We’ve posted a video of the ending on social media and may post another one. I’ll get ahead of you right now…you can’t see exactly what happens with the ending…just the audience reaction. The reason, besides surprise, is because the ending can actually be different every show (which you understand when you see it live.) I could’ve never predicted this reaction. A full blown shock to the audience that has literally had people running out of the room and even standing on chairs applauding…..and I’m not even remotely kidding. I believe this moment has strangely been worth the whole change to the show.

The Challenge…almost.

Because of the removal of the rope trick and moving the cube trick to the beginning of the show (along with some other changes), that has actually left me with 7 minutes to play around with. So right now, I’m filling those 7 unaccounted for minutes with new things every show. I want to find something permanent for that part of the show, but I’m kinda liking putting something random in there each time (that’s very unlike me, by the way). I’m soon to be testing a new routine that has me more excited than I should probably be. Hoping to see this in the show

SO! If you see the hour version of my brand new show (mostly), PLEASE tell me what you liked, besides the ending. I’m looking for a positive consensus on that 7 minutes!

Any public appearances?

Yes! End of March, I’m officially doing FOUR ticketed events. (That’s also very unlike me). It’s true, though. It’s an intimate venue and last year, we sold out both shows within a few hours of tickets going on sale. We’re trying to accommodate more people so keep an eye out!